Friday, 30 December 2011

I rubbed my eyes when I read this report in the Guardian.
Hard on the heels of printing a rotten old calumny about Israel supposedly being responsible for the reduction of Christians in the Palestinian Territories, notably in Bethlehem, a Guardian journalist no stranger to demonising Israel herself has managed to do a bit of journalism and discover the truth about the reasons why christians are leaving Gaza.

Christians are leaving Gaza for the same reasons they are leaving Judea and Samaria, Bethlehem (WB), Iraq, Egypt, everywhere in the middle east and muslim world, because of attacks against them, because of intimidation, because of murder, because of confiscation of their lands, their property and their livelihoods. The same thing happened just over half a century with the ethnic cleansing of almost a million jews when arab countries gained their independence.

As with the ancient coptic community, the jews were living all over the middle east for thousands of years before the arabs arrived.

Unlike everywhere else in the moslem world the population of christians in Israel is constantly rising. Contrast this with Iraq where almost a million christians have fled in the last 10 years, and Egypt where the the 'democratic' attacks on christians have led to 100,000 Coptic christians leaving Egypt for the west in the last year. With neither police nor army willing to defend the christian community against attack in Egypt, but instead often turning a blind eye or even joining in, the copts see the writing on the wall.

I doubt that Phoebe Greenwood has any intentions to return to Gaza in the near future. The palestinians don't take kindly to reporters who instead of reporting manufactured news from 'Pallywood' actually report the truth about what really happens.

Back to the palestinians and Hamas so beloved of western media and of a number of churches most notably members of the Anglican Church, the Methodists and Quakers. These churches are leaders in using the arab-Israel conflict as a tool with which to stir up hatred against the jewish people and Israel.

The catholic church is not far behind with a number its offshoots working hard to propagandise against the State of Israel (e.g. the vicious anti-Israel propaganda published by P.I.M.E in its 'Asianews' website from within the Vatican).

Pope Benedict himself wasn't above doing a little Israel bashing when he visited Bethlehem, criticising the Israeli security fence but failing to mention that it was erected because to keep out arab suicide bombers who inflicted thousands of deaths and injuries on innocent israelis.

And this Christmas the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster used his Christmas sermon to attack Israel

Since the Palestinian Authority left the Gaza Strip, festive celebrations and displays of crucifixes have become taboo

When the Latin patriarch came to Gaza's Holy Family church to celebrate Christmas mass last week, he instructed a full house of Catholic and Orthodox families to pray for reconciliation. As the archbishop, Fouad Twal, stood at the lectern in Gaza City, Fatah and Hamas leaders were meeting in Cairo attempting to mend differences that have divided the Palestinian factions for four years and rendered Gaza a besieged Islamist enclave.

Of the 1.5 million Palestinians now living in the Gaza Strip, fewer than 1,400 are Christian and those who can are leaving. The church hopes reconciliation will bring them back.

There hasn't been a Christmas tree in Gaza City's main square since Hamas pushed the Palestinian Authority out of Gaza in 2007 and Christmas is no longer a public holiday.

Imad Jelda is an Orthodox Christian who runs a youth training centre in Gaza City. With unemployment hovering at 23%, he has seen young Christian men leave to study and work abroad in their droves. "People here do not celebrate Christmas anymore because they are nervous," Jelda said. "The youth in particular have a fear inside themselves."

Karam Qubrsi, 23, and his younger brother Peter, 21, are the eldest sons in one of Gaza's 55 remaining Catholic families. Both wear prominent wooden crucifixes. "Jesus tells me, 'if you can't carry my cross, you don't belong to me,'" Peter explained. It's a demonstration of faith that has caused him some trouble.

He describes being stopped in the street by a Hamas official who told him to remove the cross. "I told him it's not his business and that I wouldn't," Peter said. After being threatened with arrest he was eventually let go, but the incident scared him.

The brightly decorated tree in the Qubrsis' living room sits at odds with the sombre mood. Their sisters Rani, 29, and Mai, 27, left Gaza in 2007 when the 30-year-old manager of Gaza's Bible Society bookstore, where their husbands worked, was shot dead, having been accused by radical elements of proselytising. They now live in Bethlehem.

Their parents are currently in Israel where their mother is receiving treatment for pancreatic cancer. Israel applies strict restrictions to Palestinians hoping to leave the Gaza Strip, meaning the brothers are unable to join them. A quota of 500 applicants will be given permission to enter the West Bank this Christmas but only people younger than 16 and older than 35 will be considered.

"Christmas for us means going to Bethlehem, being with family. This year we'll do nothing," Karam said.

The Qubrsi brothers hold out little hope for Gaza. They agree that life would be better for the Christians here if the Palestinian Authority were to return but they doubt any factional peace would last.

"Many people want the Palestinian Authority to come back just so they can take their revenge," Peter said.

"This is not a Christian environment. There are no good universities, there is no opportunity to work, no apartments to rent and so no way we can get married. We have no future here."

Monday, 26 December 2011

Western countries have for many years been suffering from a guilt complex over their colonial and imperial past. They now have to interminably show fitting atonement for this, and what better than to offer up the jewish state as atonement to the religious bigotry of muslims. The slightest allegation of an israeli misdemeanour gets jumped on by the nations of the world. The members of the UN Security Council usually lead the pack rather than trying to restrain the religious hatred dressed up as identification with a supposedly oppressed palestinian people. Only the US veto prevents Israel from suffering severe UNSC condemnation and sanctions on a regular basis.

Israel will be condemned whatever it does to defend itself. So why then does Israel take islamic feelings into account at all. After all muslims don't even recognise that jews have any rights to Israel, let alone the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Muslim media always refer to the 'alleged temple' when referring to jewish claims to the Temple Mount. Not that jews claim much nowadays, just the right to climb up to the mount and maybe say a prayer or two. But that is not allowed by the muslim Waqf that Israel allowed to hold sway over the Mount even after Israel took it back when defending itself against Jordanian aggression in 1967.

The muslims have seven entrances to the Mount and yet the Waqf objects to the jews having even one at the very southern tip of the Mount, the so-called Mughrabi bridge. When it collapsed the Waqf condemned Israel for having undermined it with archaeological digs, and when it was replaced with a temporary bridge the muslim world condemned Israel. And now that the temporary bridge is again in danger of collapse and will be replaced the muslim world with the Waqf at the head, aided and abetted by the UN is busy condemning Israel again.

Israel must think about removing the sectarian Waqf from responsibility for the Temple Mount and take over responsibility itself. Jews and muslims both have a right to pray on the Temple Mount.

Islamic bigotry, intolerance and disrespect for other religions must no longer be allowed.

If Abraham Were to Come This Year, Temple Mount Would be Closed
“If Jesus were to come this year, Bethlehem would be closed', the London Guardian wrote this week. And what if Abraham were to visit?
By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
First Publish: 12/26/2011, 5:03 PM

Temple Mount
Temple Mount
Flash 90

“If Jesus were to come this year, Bethlehem would be closed', the London Guardian reported this week. And what if Abraham were to visit?

The Guardian article painted a bleak picture of an “Apartheid wall” and military checkpoints that supposedly have stagnated the city of Bethlehem, located immediately south of Jerusalem.

The writer, Phoebe Greenwood, also details the nearby Jewish communities that are “strangling” the city and quotes a Catholic priest bemoaning the exodus of Christians from the ancient city. Many businesses in the communities employ neighboring Arabs, who are able to travel freely while Jews are not allowed into Bethlehem and other “Apartheid” areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority.

Foreign media headlined the alleged problems of Bethlehem – until Christmas Eve, when suddenly there were reports of nearly 100,000 visitors who apparently were able to pass the “Apartheid wall.”

All of the reports from foreign news services, such as the Associated Press, routinely traced Christians’ problems to Israel. “Like the rest of the West Bank, the town fell on hard times after the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation broke out in late 2000,” according to AP.

As FrontPage writer Leo Rennert noted, Justus Reid Weiner, an international human rights lawyer who teaches at Hebrew University, has stated that Christians lost their majority status in Bethlehem soon after Yasser Arafat assumed control of the Palestinian Authority.

“Weiner, in a survey of human-rights abuses under Palestinian rule, found plenty of reasons – intimidations, beatings, land theft, firebombing of churches, denial of employment, torture, kidnappings, forced marriages, and extortion,” wrote Rennert. “And woe the Palestinian Muslim who converts to Christianity.”

In the previous years under Jewish control, the economy in Bethelhem, as in all of Judea, Samaria and Gaza, flourished after being suffocated under Jordanian rule, until the Intifada under Arafat. Under Jordanian occupation between 1948 and 1967, all holy sites were barred to both Christians and Jews, except for visiting dignitaries, until Israel opened up the sites after the Six-Day War in 1967.

Neither the Guardian nor foreign news services noted what would happen to the Biblical Abraham if he were to return today for a visit to the Temple Mount, where he sacrificed a ram after HaShem told him not to sacrifice his only son, Yitzchak (Isaac).

After the Six-Day War, Israel recognized Muslim claims to the Temple Mount, Judaism’s most sacred site, but Muslim authorities have used their de facto control to haul out tons of earth containing artifacts dating from the First and Second Jewish Temple, whose existence has been increasingly denied by the Palestinian Authority in specific and the Arab world in general.

Jews are barred from praying on the Temple Mount and are not even allowed to carry any holy articles with them. With Muslim observers supervising visits, police have frequently arrested or removed Jews for various violations, such as singing or reciting a prayer even in a whisper.

The Palestinian Authority has been insistent in claiming that the Temple Mount, as well as all of the Old City, is sovereign PA territory and will be the seat of a country it wants to establish. PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has stated that in a Palestinian Authority country, no Jews would be allowed, which would preclude a visit by Abraham to the place that is the foundation of the belief in one G-d.

Saturday, 24 December 2011

A million christians have been ethnically cleansed from the Middle East in the last 10 years.

In the ME christians are only safe in Israel, possibly the only place in the world where (as one result of israeli tolerance and freedom of religion) the christian population is increasing.
Sing gustily at demonstrations where haters of jews and Israel like to shout and sing their lies. Spread the truth. Adapt your own songs.

1.Away in a manger, no crib for a bed,
If you're christian in Bethlehem there is no place for your head.
Jews and christians can't live there as they can end up dead
In palestinian areas they might just beat you,
and you'll go, enough said.

2.The stars over Gaza looked down where a christian lay,
Then a Hamas mob came and chucked him from off the rooftop.
The cattle are lowing, the baby awakes,
but a christian in Iraq no crying he makes;

3.Beware Lord Jesus don't look down from the sky,
be careful of islamists who kill in the blink of an eye.
Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask thee to stay,
Please protect us Copts in Egypt so we'll live another day.

4.In Israel, In Israel where a christian is safe,
There is no need to fear a knife in your face.
Unlike in Hamas Gaza where poor Rami Ayyad met his fate
His christian bookshop was burned down but no trial to date.

I will publish some materials over the next few days to be used in reply.

Below is poster that with a little tweaking should fit A4. I've printed it out. Of course if you can do it larger so much the better. You might wish to eyeball hate-filled protesters, going near enough so they can read it. It is advised to keep your cool and not reply to hate filled invective, just let people read.
Celebrate Christmas with fun activities in Hamas ruled Gaza

Fire a rocket into the Israeli town of Sderot (12,500 fired so far ).
Advanced students pick their own targets. Manee Singueanphon from Thailand was killed in the village of Nativ Haasara. Wasn't jewish but still great fun (for us).
Special treat - Fire a mortar into israeli villages by the border (Really really great fun as there's no warning or defence against a mortar – hundreds of israelis have been injured and killed by mortar fire including Amnon Rosenberg, 51, killed by a mortar bomb which struck Moshav Yesha and Jimmy Kedoshim from Kibbutz Kfar Aza

Why not fire a sniper rifle at agricultural workers in israeli fields? Can you do as well as one of our Hamas snipers who potted 20 year-old volunteer Carlos Chavez from Ecuador in the fields of Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha (with a specialized .50 caliber (12.5 mm) snipers' rifle). Well Done!WOW shoot up a school bus with a laser guided anti-tank missile. Sadly our Hamas sniper only managed to hit this Israeli school bus after most the kids had just left. We bagged one 16 year old jewish kid with a Kornet missle though.

Hamas protests strongly that Israelis are blockading Gaza! If we could load up ships with enough weapons we could set the whole of south Israel alight with our 'firecrackers.'

Hamas Charter: "The time will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews [and kill them]; until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: Oh Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him!” ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamas_Covenant ).
Too bad about the christian bookshop in Gaza that Hamas bombed ( Rami Khader Ayyad its director was later found stabbed to death).

Tuesday, 20 December 2011

How often do we hear that the Islamist Ennahda Party is moderate? How often do western journalists assure us that the soft speaking human rights spouting newly democratic islamists of whatever complexion are to be trusted?

How much evidence does it need to finally sit up and say enough? It seems nothing will convince western dupes. So the following report will not convince them either.

Turkey's islamist party is feted by the US president Barak Obama who put Turkey in charge of building an opposition to the Syrian Baathists. And no surprise that that its choice of a 'representative' opposition is mainly islamist. Needless to say Obama's 'moderate' AKP ruled Turkey at present has 70 journalists and thousands of others languishing in prison without any due process. And what about the evidence of Hamas in Gaza where women, gays and christians are humiliated and even killed?

And Hezbollah where women must where the veil. Even so called democratic Egypt now has the majority of women wearing the veil to protect themselves against violence and sexual abuse by the mob. And of course we all know about Iran.

But still, western journalists will tell us to trust them that these islamists are different. They are 'democratic'. Right, the evidence will keep pouring in and the useful idiots will mouth the the phrases that the mandarins of the British Foreign Office and US State Department wish us to hear.

As a last ditch defence you might even hear it said that arab society is traditionally brutal towards women, it being estimated that 5,000 women die each year through so-called 'honour' killings. The most moderate of arab countries couldn't bring itself to outlaw this barbaric practise. But the difference now is that the brutality will be implicitly encouraged even when not state led.

The rise of Islamist parties in the Arab Spring countries has frightened Arab women who fear losing their rights as the movements “hijack” the revolutions that overthrew long-time dictators.

“Women in Tunisia are living in fear that their previously gained rights might be lost during the rule of the Islamist Ennahda Party, because even though they say that they are moderate Islamists … they excuse all the violence that the Salafis are committing,” Dr. Khadija Arfaoui, a member of the Tunisian Association of Democratic Women and a prominent intellectual, told the Hürriyet Daily News in yesterday.

In short, the revolution in Tunisia has been “hijacked by the Islamists,” she said on the sidelines of an Istanbul conference titled “Women’s Empowerment in Economic, Social and Political Transformation of the Middle East,” which was organized by the Women Entrepreneurs Association of Turkey (KAGİDER).
Arfaoui, who is also a professor at the Women’s Studies and Human Rights at the Higher Institute of Languages in Tunis, blamed the ruling Ennahda Party for turning a blind eye to the actions of the radical Islamist Salafis in Tunisia.

Tunisians overthrew their ruler in January. In an Oct. 25 election, the Islamist Ennahda party took the most votes and formed a new government with two left-wing parties. Arfaoui said she personally relayed her concerns to the leader of the Ennahda Party, Rached Ghannouchi, a couple of months ago.
“When Salafis see women without headscarves on the streets, they attack them with cudgels. They use violence toward female artists and intellectuals, and the Ennahda Party does nothing about them,” Arfaoui said.

Arfaoui also said many Tunisians were afraid to agree with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan when the Turkish leader visit staged a visit to the country and expressed his support for secularism.
“[This is] because secularism is [viewed] as atheism in Tunisia,” she added.

Arfaoui was sentenced to eight months in jail because of a Facebook message she forwarded in 2009during the rule of toppled President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Tunisia’s newly elected president, Moncef Marzouki, sent a letter of support to her during her time in jail; at the time, Marzouki was a leading human rights activist.

‘Jordanian women also fear Islamists’

Arab women in Jordan, meanwhile, have had little presence at protests in the Hashemite kingdom out of fear of eventually helping the country’s Islamists come to power, according to Dr. Lina Shabeeb, a human rights activist and deputy dean at the Faculty of Law at the University of Jordan. “The protests in Jordan are different from the protests in other Arab countries. People want the corruption and the system to be changed rather than the change of the ruler. And female Jordanians don’t see this as a necessary war. They think we already have many equal rights with men, we are already in the social arena, in business life, universities [and more],” Shabeeb told the Daily News yesterday while attending the KAGİDER summit.

“Female Jordanians fear that Islamists would come to power and that they will be deprived of their rights,” she said.